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A drunk aide started the entire Trump-Russia narrative media’s now obsessed with

A drunk aide started the entire Trump-Russia narrative media’s now obsessed with

A new report claims the Russia investigation into alleged collusion between then-Republican nominee Donald Trump and Russia began after a Trump campaign aide drunkenly said that Russia had dirt on then-Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

On Saturday, The New York Times reported (subscription required) that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, allegedly told Australian diplomat Alexander Downer in May 2016 that Russian officials had indicated they had dirt on Clinton.

But The Times report downplays or fails to mention crucial information about the Russia probe, and that raises questions about the left-leaning paper’s motivations with its report.

The Times claims that an intoxicated Papadopoulos told Downer in a London bar last year that Russia was reportedly shopping around the idea of handing over thousands of emails, apparently from the Democrat National Committee’s computers.

The Times report speculates that Papadopoulos was made aware three weeks earlier that Moscow had emails that would embarrass Clinton.

But The Times report admits several paragraphs into its piece that it wasn’t clear exactly aware of how much Papadopoulos said that night to Downer, yet continued to speculate that the former aide essentially revealed that the Trump campaign was considering working with Russia to undermine the 2016 presidential election.
There’s absolutely no proof to support these erroneous claims, and the Times largely buried that fact deep into the piece.
Downer reportedly notified American officials about the alleged conversation with Papadopoulos about two months later when leaked Democratic National Committee emails began to surface online.
The information Papadopoulos reportedly shared information with Downer was apparently provided to him by Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor with ties to Moscow officials.

The report suggests that Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had “thousands of emails” obtained by hackers from the DNC.

The Times admits that it’s unclear how much information Papadopoulos shared with Downer, what exactly was said, and whether he told anyone from the Trump campaign about his alleged conversations with Mifsud.

Papadopoulos reportedly told campaign adviser Stephen Miller, now a White House strategist, that he had “interesting messages coming in from Moscow” and wanted to set up a meeting with Trump and Putin.

The meetings were rejected, and there’s no proof that the Trump campaign ever entertained such requests from the low level adviser, as reported by The Hill.

In other words, and this is the real theme the mainstream media is trying to ignore:

The FBI probe also paved the way for special counsel Robert Mueller to launch an investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any decisions on alleged Russian collusion. So far, Mueller’s long-running, expensive investigation has produced no public proof of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

In November, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI for not fully disclosing conversations he had with Mifsud during the 2016 campaign.

Despite no evidence proving Trump colluded with the Russians after more than a year of investigating, The New York Times is now contending that a drunken low-level aide triggered the Russia investigation, even though the Times admitted it cannot corroborate what Papadopoulos reportedly said.

If Papadopoulos’ drunken ramblings, which cannot be verified, launched the Russia probe, that is very telling about how desperate some may have been to derail Trump from winning the presidency.

And it raises many questions about the validity of such claims going forward.

Please like and share this story to show that The New York Times is claiming a heavily intoxicated former Trump campaign staffer provided the basis for launching the Russia probe.

CORRECTION: This post has been modified since it was first published to correct the source of the emails Papadopoulos allegedly told Downer the Russians possessed.